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BASEBALL; Rangers Will Consider Trading Rodriguez

The Texas Rangers are willing to listen to offers for Alex Rodriguez, their prized shortstop and the highest-paid player in baseball, although they are not actively shopping him, an American League official who has spoken to members of the Rangers' front office said yesterday.

The Rangers' motivation would be to free themselves of the potential seven years and $179 million remaining on Rodriguez's contract, and to spend his $25 million average annual salary on filling multiple needs.

Rodriguez, who can veto a trade to any team and therefore determine where he wants to play, is perceived to have grown weary of the Rangers' losing. He is eager to join the kind of team for which postseason appearances have become the norm for his shortstop contemporaries like the Yankees' Derek Jeter, the Red Sox' Nomar Garciaparra and Miguel Tejada, a free agent from the Athletics.

But there are few teams that could afford Rodriguez and that would appeal to him. The Mets were Rodriguez's first choice as a free agent three years ago, before Steve Phillips, general manager at the time, said his contract demands would create a ''24 and one'' clubhouse atmosphere. But the Mets have been intrigued since Rodriguez said this summer that he would consider accepting a trade. He backtracked on those comments the next day.

But a person who recently spoke with Rodriguez said that he would not go to a National League team and that he did not think Rodriguez would accept a trade to the Mets. The person listed Boston, Anaheim, Baltimore and the Yankees as possible destinations.

The Yankees, of course, have their own All-Star shortstop, Jeter, who is signed through 2010. Jeter's relationship with Rodriguez is believed to have cooled in recent years, making a position switch for either unlikely.

Rodriguez, 28, signed a record 10-year, $252 million contract three years ago with an out clause that allows him to leave after seven seasons. But officials from two other teams said this week that there were too many indications in recent months that Rodriguez might be headed elsewhere. At least one Rangers official has commented privately that he expects Rodriguez to be playing for another team next season.

Tom Hicks, the Rangers' owner who gave Rodriguez that deal, spoke with his shortstop after the season about the team's plans and reaffirmed their commitment. But Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, told The Dallas Morning News in September that Hicks had made a commitment to surround Rodriguez with a competitive team and that cutting payroll, as Hicks said he had ''no choice but to do,'' would go against that.

The Rangers' payroll could be cut to $70 million next season from $104 million last opening day. Rodriguez will earn $21 million in 2004, and it is not hard to calculate the difficulty in assembling a competitive team when 30 percent of the payroll is devoted to one player.

Rodriguez will collect $98 million over the next four seasons and, if he does not exercise his player option, another $81 million in the next three seasons.

To make a trade more realistic, an executive with another team said, Rodriguez would have to restructure his contract or the Rangers would need to pay a large chunk of it, bringing the annual value down to about $15 million.

But the official who had spoken with the Rangers said that Boras was unwilling to redo the contract and that Hicks would not pay for any of Rodriguez's contract, offering instead to accept a bloated contract from another team.

The Mets, the official said as an example, could ship catcher Mike Piazza, shortstop José Reyes and pitcher Aaron Heilman to Texas. Piazza is owed $30 million over the next two seasons and can veto any trade, and Reyes is all but untouchable. The Mets would consider moving Reyes to second base only if they had a chance to acquire Rodriguez.